RelativityREAL Hires Elizabeth Porter to Rev Up Scripted Series Development

(Beverly Hills, Calif.) November 5, 2012 – RelativityREAL, the television arm of Relativity Media, has hired former Comedy Central veteran Elizabeth Porter to join the company as Executive Vice President, Development and Series, it was announced today by RelativityREAL’s Chief Executive Officer, Tom Forman. 

Reporting directly to Forman, Porter will be responsible for overseeing series and pilots, both scripted and non-scripted. 

In making the announcement, Forman said, "The most amazing thing about Elizabeth: she's both incredibly experienced and truly well-liked. That's a surprisingly tricky combination. Elizabeth will continue to build RelativityREAL's core unscripted business, plus lead our charge into scripted."

Porter said, "I'm so excited to join this team at RelativityREAL and work with Tom. The opportunity to be a part of launching a scripted arm on top of what is already an incredibly successful unscripted business, weaves together everything I love about the development of voices and story in both unscripted and scripted shows."

Prior to joining RelativityREAL, Porter worked as Senior Vice President, Specials and Talent Development at Comedy Central for seven years. While there, she oversaw talent development and casting for all stand up and narrative projects, both pilot and series, and was widely credited with the expansion of the now Emmy®-nominated “Comedy Central Roast” franchise. She delivered record-breaking roasts of Pamela Anderson, William Shatner, Jeff Foxworthy, Flavor Flav, Bob Saget, Larry the Cable Guy, David Hasselhoff, Joan Rivers and Donald Trump and hired Seth MacFarlane into the on-air roast master role. Before her time at Comedy Central, Porter worked as Vice President, Alternative Programming at USA Network where she developed and launched the first two seasons of “Nashville Star,” reinvigorated the AFI Life Achievement Award and steered production of tributes to Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep while overseeing development of all alternative series including “House Wars.” Porter began her career at the Oprah Winfrey show in Chicago and then moved to Los Angeles to become a producer on such shows as “Vibe,” “The Howie Mandel” talk show for Paramount, the “Martin Short Show,” and “The Man Show” and “Jiminy Glick” on Comedy Central. 
RelativityREAL recently celebrated the success of its original “American Bible Challenge” series, hosted by Jeff Foxworthy, on the Game Show Network. The series premiere delivered the network’s highest ratings in its 17-year history and has been picked up for a second season. RelativityREAL’s hit series “The Mortified Sessions” returned for its second season on the Sundance Channel on October 8th, “LOLWork,” the outrageously funny work-place documentary series will premiere on November 7th on Bravo, and “Catfish The TV Show,” the television adaptation of the hit documentary thriller produced by Relativity will premiere November 12th on MTV.  RelativityREAL currently has 70 projects in active production, including 17 original series airing on television or in the upcoming season.

ABOUT RelativityREAL
Under the leadership of award-winning producer Tom Forman (Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Kid Nation), Relativity’s television arm launched in June 2008. The division has quickly become one of the country's largest suppliers of unscripted television. In addition, the division is developing a slate of scripted sitcoms, dramas, and sketch comedy series to be released in the upcoming year. Most recently, RelativityREAL partnered with YouTube and will be launching a channel in the fall.  RelativityREAL's executive ranks are bolstered by overall production deals with TV veterans Jay Blumenfield and Tony Marsh, Ashley Tisdale’s Blondie Girl Productions, executive producer Ellen Rakieten (“The Oprah Winfrey Show”) and Ray Ricord.